An afternoon at the PNE
Here is a small thing I must finally admit: Until earlier today, I have never been to the PNE. Yup, I might had been among the few people in Metro Vancouver who have not been there until earlier today and, for some unknown reason, I chose to go today. Call it alignment of the planets, the entropy cause by an atom in Alpha Centauri, or just plain boredom: I bought a ticket and went to the PNE…
Anyway, the PNE does not need any introduction so… As the first picture showed, I entered via the entrace in Renfrew and Hastings and the first thing you will see is the Marketplace.
Boy it was packed!
I have the odd feeling the Marketplace was designed for those who love infomercials… I think, easily, over 50% of the items in sale there have appeared in an infomercial! Now, out of all pictures I took in the marketplace, I chose to put this, mainly because of the stand on the right: orthotic. It just happens, while in Hamilton, I was flipping channels a day and watched a report of Marketplace on orthotic… Now, I am not saying all the stands are quacks, just caveat emptor. However, there was a very good caricature stand by local artist Mei Yu. No picture of her stand due to respect, as she wished no pictures taken from her works. Odd, though…
Anyway, this is what I consider be the “best” stand: one out of several massage devices and/or chair massage in this case. Notice this is a full chair, plus some attachment for parts of your body like lower leg and arms. For $2, you could try this chair for 5 minutes; $5 for 15 minutes. I will say it was among the best $2 I spent in the PNE. I could have stopped by some of the chair massage stands but this was… different. Something you might wonder: how much is for the chair? Answer: $4,700. Hmm…. Too expensive, not to mention it is something I would not use on a constante basis: it is better to go to a spa, specially considering a (registered) massage therapist can focus on a specific area and/or tailor the appropriate treatment. Oh, well…
Lots of people…
The food bank stand sculptures.
The PNE house. Yup, I purchased some tickets… ^_^;;;
One thing that caught my attention was this stand with some grilled chicken. It might not be really noticeable from this picture but it was grilled using charcoal rather than gas! So much smoke was generated from the grill you could easily smell from far!
Next to that stand was the agrodome which had a horse exhibition at that moment.
Did somebody mention food and long queues???
Some pictures from the talent contest. Did not spend too much time here, though. The little girl from the first picture above was singing and dancing and I must say I was impressed.
Did I mention there was a lot of people?
The CTV stand, which includes some blue screen tests. No, I did not even queued in.
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And, of course, the rides… I did not buy tickets for any of these mainly because of…
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They did not include motion sickness!!! |
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And now… more games!
I was able to win a plushie from this stand!
The barnyard – here an exhibition of vegetables.
And a petting zoo… Nothing too exciting…
The only food I purchased: a scone filled with honey butter and raspberry jam. It might looked good but was not spectacular.
By now it was almost 6:00 p.m., time for the CTV newscast.
And today’s newscaster was Keri Adams. I love her smile!
Overall, I am impressed with everything in the PNE. Although some things are really over-priced (read: food; for example, the scone above cost $3.50), there is enough activities that does not cost you money, provided you can resist temptation (read: marketplace). I guess I am up for next year!
